When Meat is Not Murder (Biotech Lab Meat)

[sintax]

When meat is not murder

Would you eat steak if it had been grown in a petri dish?

Ian Sample, science correspondent
Saturday August 13, 2005
The Guardian

It is the ultimate conundrum for vegetarians who think that meat is murder: a revolution in processed food that will see fresh meat grown from animal cells without a single cow, sheep or pig being killed.

Researchers have published details in a biotechnology journal describing a new technique which they hailed as the answer to the world's food shortage. Lumps of meat would be cultured in laboratory vats rather than carved from livestock reared on a farm.

Scientists have adapted the cutting-edge medical technique of tissue engineering, where individual cells are multiplied into whole tissues, and applied them to food production. "With a single cell, you could theoretically produce the world's annual meat supply," said Jason Matheny, an agricultural scientist at the University of Maryland.

According to researchers, meat grown in laboratories would be more environmentally friendly and could be tailored to be healthier than farm-reared meat by controlling its nutrient content and screening it for food-borne diseases.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/genes/article/0,2763,1548451,00.html

[smoogatz]

1. Meat is only murder if you're eating a human.

And even then, only if you actually kill the person you're eating. Otherwise it's just cannibalism. Call me a stickler for language, I don't mind.

[sintax]

4. But admit this

"Lumps of meat cultured in a laboratory vat" would be a great name for a hard core band from Liverpool.

As an avowed omnivore I find the prospect of petri-meat a bit harrowing.

[smoogatz]

7. petri-meat

I think it already exists, more or less, in bologna, spam and hotdogs.

[buddysmellgood]

12. I'm sure they could "grow" the hot dog tomorrow, but even in mass

production this new technique could not be cheaper than packing floor scrapings into a casing as they currently do. :)

[alarcojon]

5. Interesting work

I wonder what PETA thinks of it?

[expatriot]

25. Definition #2 of the verb _murder_

2. To kill brutally or inhumanly.

[JohnLocke]

2. Great opportunity and great risks

This research could lead to the end of famine, hunger, and crop failure and improve the quality of life all over the world. It could also lead to seriously frightening issues.

I hope it's the first.

[madeline_con]

20. "... seriously frightening issues ..."

What issues?

[AlienGirl]

3. Not a conundrum at all

If you're veg for primarily ethical reasons, there would be nothing wrong with eating vat-grown meat. If it's for health reasons, you probably would not want to risk it (unless they seriously improve the fat-to-lean ratio by growing it this way).

If you've mentally re-categorized meat from "yummy food" to "icky dead animal bits" you will probably still be so grossed-out by it that you won't eat it anyway.

Tucker

[Teaser]

6. "Vat Grown" sounds like a William Gibsonism

Have you been reading "Neuromancer?"

[Stuckinthebush]

8. Most vegetarians have lost their taste for meat

So vat-grown or natural doesn't really matter.

But this vegetarian supports the idea 100%. If we can seriously curtail the number of animals being raised for slaughter, we can use that land and resources for growing crops that can feed so many more people.

I'll invest in a meat vat farm!

[expatriot]

26. 100% agreed.

[expatriot]

24. agreed. these people have no clue about the principles of veganism

and vegetarianism.

A carborator does not a car make.

It's like people are so in denial of the basic principles of veganism that they have to TRY to play stupid in an attempt NOT to connect the dots. i.e. What about the brocolli?

[pokercat999]

30. I think you have it right.

I'm in the "I think I'm gonna puke" category.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Petriwurst?

Cellburgers maybe...

[Redstone]

10. Sorry to rain on your parade, but we've discussed this

already, even to the point of veg / carnivore flamebonanza.

The Guardian seems to be a bit slow on the uptake; it's not your fault.

Redstone

[sintax]

14. I omnivore

but it's not my fault.

'preciate the absolution.

[Redstone]

15. I'm an omnivore too. No absolution needed.

It's just that this story is stale already, and has provoked all the arguments we need for it to provoke.

Not a personal attack on you at all.

Redstone

[K8-EEE]

23. blech....

Cloned meat cell steak? Um...pass the potatoes!

[lateo]

11. "The flesh you so fancifully fry"

The meat in your mouth
As you savour the flavour
Of murder

/The Smiths

[karlrschneider]

13. If it the right taste and texture, it wouldn't bother me a bit.

Hell, it's just protein with a certain configuration...
The cow we get the T-bone from is the product of a million years of evolution, who am I to condemn a little speeding up of the process?

[charlie]

16. Fast food and luncheon meats

are already laboratory horrors anyway. Chicken McNuggets couldn't possibly be any more "natural" than a vat-grown tube of meat.

Make it taste good and cheaper than "real" and I'll gladly switch.

[Dogmudgeon]

17. This has been proposed for years

A couple of sci-fi stories have been written about it, as far back as the early 1960s. Maybe earlier.

There's nothing frightening about it. It's simply cultured meat, grown like a mycelial mat of mushroom, like Kombucha. When the technique is perfected, it won't be grown in either test tubes or petri dishes, it will most likely be grown in special glass chambers.

Since it's animal tissue, it would need more TLC, but there ought to be no toxic chemicals involved, no neural tissue, and no prions, either.

The tough part is the TLC.

--p!

[blindpig]

29. Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand

by Samuel Delaney for one. Vat meat of all sorts was available in this story including that of humans and other sentient species.

Mmm, long pig! No problemo here, but I wonder how the tissue donors would feel about it.

[Dogmudgeon]

32. Most people won't even try venison

How are you gonna get 'em to try viande d'homme?

--p!

[Sub Atomic]

18. Soylent Green is people!! Soylent Green is people!!

Is that what we're headed towards?

[madeline_con]

19. The "Right" won't allow it....

too close to cloning for their comfort.

[Placebo]

21. Bring on the petri dish meat!

:woohoo:

[Kire]

22. Great argument for stem cell research.

One of the greatest. It better tast good, though, or the swing voters (NASCAR Dads) aren't going to go for it.

[bos1]

27. for those who care

what goes into their bodies it doesn't matter if this is "meat" -- this is just more Frankenfood, like GM food or chemical additives or aspartame or any of those things that will wreck your body chemistry and contributes in the USA's epidemics of cancer, obesity, depression, etc. Bad idea to eat experimental food unless you want to end up looking like a guinea pig roadkill

[Bill McBlueState]

31. what does this have to do with aspartame?

Does fake meat cause depression? How do you know all these things? Been doing some research?

[GarySeven]

28. Next step: the Ameglian Major Cow

This is a minor character in Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." It's a species of dairy animal specifically bred to not only have the desire to be eaten, but to be capable of saying so quite clearly and distinctly - even emphatically. Right now, you can get it at the "Restaurant at the End of the Universe." Once you place an order for steak, the cow will inform you that it is just nipping off to the kitchen to shoot himself - but don't worry, he says: he'll be quite humane.